Expansion Bolt for Removing Bridge Thimbles

[mtotallywired]

Hi friends,

Ive been using an extraction drill bit (as a method shared a while back by Shelby at Black Bobbin guitars) to safely (at least for the guitar) remove bridge thimbles on common vintage spec offsets. I was reminded recently that some folks use 6mm OD expansion bolts to do the same thing.

Does anyone happen to have a link to ones they've bought and have successfully used? I've tried twice to buy m6 ones from Amazon and both have been too big to fit inside a standard avri size bridge thimble.

Also for those that use this method, is it a one size fits all kind of deal? Squier / MIM / MIJ / AV?

Thanks in advance

[timtam]

https://ramset.com.au/product/dynabolt- ... ve-anchor/

I did see some others on aliexpress specified as "6mm" but when you looked closely at the specs it appeared that 6mm was the diameter of the internal bolt, not the outer diameter with the sleeve. If 6mm is the internal bolt diameter, the outer diameter with the sleeve will probably be too big for most thimbles.

6mm diameter (with sleeve) should be small enough to fit all known thimbles. It's the smallest size they make. Wrapping loosely with some electrical tape or similar may help with grip and also protect the inside of the thimble from scratches.

Should work well unless someone has mistakenly glued the thimbles in.

There are possibly other styles of expansion bolts that would work, but I haven't tried them.

[mtotallywired]

https://ramset.com.au/product/dynabolt- ... ve-anchor/

I did see some others on aliexpress specified as "6mm" but when you looked closely at the specs it appeared that 6mm was the diameter of the internal bolt, not the outer diameter with the sleeve. If 6mm is the internal bolt diameter, the outer diameter with the sleeve will probably be too big for most thimbles.

6mm diameter (with sleeve) should be small enough to fit all known thimbles. It's the smallest size they make. Wrapping loosely with some electrical tape or similar may help with grip and also protect the inside of the thimble from scratches.

Should work well unless someone has mistakenly glued the thimbles in.

There are possibly other styles of expansion bolts that would work, but I haven't tried them.

Thanks so much! I seem to be having issue finding these specs for this kind of product that is here where I am in the USA. Seems the metric ones are not common here? That said, is the inner bore of a US spec jazzmaster / jaguar thimble 8.4mm? So would one with an OD of 8mm work?

[timtam]

Thanks so much! I seem to be having issue finding these specs for this kind of product that is here where I am in the USA. Seems the metric ones are not common here? That said, is the inner bore of a US spec jazzmaster / jaguar thimble 8.4mm? So would one with an OD of 8mm work?

The sleeve expands when you turn the nut - to grip the inside wall of the thimble - and then returns to its original outer diameter when unscrewed. Which allows you to easily remove it from the thimble. But after it's been expanded once, it may never return completely to the original diameter. So it helps to have a bit of leeway between the nominal sleeve diameter and the thimble diameter. So I'm rather doubtful that 8mm would work.

[jibbit]

almost any wall plug will do

[einpresstiefe]

Prepping a body for paint I pulled them with a paint key, free or very cheap at your local hardware store



With this sort of motion it grabbed it firmly but gently and they came out very easily.